Mists of Pandaria Preview: Transmoggable Legendaries, New World Events, and More!

There are some huge changes coming to Mists of Pandaria it appears in this latest beta patch. I've always wanted Blizzard to add more events to the world and it looks like they are going to be!

There's going to be a new fishing contest, a special event on every Friday the 13th, and more. There are also a few new rare mobs to discuss, from a Sha boss that focuses on World PvP to a group of vendors that spawn in rare locations that sell recolored legendaries that can be transmogged. A purple Thunderfury? Sign me up!

Oh, one more thing: APRIL FOOL'S.

Legendary Rare Spawns

Traveling Merchants Sell Legendary Reskins

While looking for wild pets added in this patch this weekend, Perculia and I found two very mysterious vendors on the roads in Duskwood and Burning Steppes!

Kayle, a Blood Elf, sold us a Corrupted Thunderfury for which was Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker's model with a purple tint. After selling it, she disappeared into the shadows, saying she would be back again next night. It's also worth noting that we could transmogrify it, which I've included a screenshot of.

Meanwhile Master Zilean, a Dragonkin, had Time Tarnished Warglaives which sold for each. These ended up red recolors of the The Twin Blades of Azzinoth. He too disappeared after selling the item--we didn't see them up later that day, so perhaps they share the same spawn timer as rare mobs.

New World Boss: Shyvana the Unforgiving

It looks like there will be a Sha world boss that spawns based on your faction's dominance in PvP called Shyvana the Unforgiving.

The entire encounter seems to revolve around regret for fueling violence between the Alliance and Horde. Of course, this makes sense--the Sha, after all, grows more powerful with conflict and PvP would definitely fall under that category. The more kills a faction has over the opposite faction on a realm, the more likely the chance that Shyvana will spawn in a capital city as hostile towards the entire faction.

The boss has a few abilities we've managed to piece together: See Wrathion in Tavern as a soft enrage timer and Cobalt Mine will occasionally hit tanks. It also seems to inflict its enemies with the shame of killing others----throughout the fight and banish them, rendering them useless to their cause, so you'll need a large raid to be prepared.

After killing it, players gain Summon Ningna which lets them actually interact with the opposing faction. Since this has been requested for years especially with the rising popularity of Real ID, it seems like a fun way to make it a temporary perk.

Shyvana the Unforgiving also likely drops (Race Flag 6) as a mount, as it's been stated that the new world bosses will have unique mount drops.

BUFF_SHYVANA_DEFEAT_TEXT = "As Shyvana the Unforgiving's fragile body falls, a wave of tranquility passes over you. You are now righting your wrongs of blood thirst.";

Weekly Events

As we covered in the press event, there is a new faction called the Artisans. They are made of the Tillers and the Anglers. Both seem to have new weekly events added into the game. There was also a third event we found that seemed to revolve around Friday the 13ths, which is a really cool idea!

Fishing Contest: Anglers' Deep Sea Dive

It looks like there will be a new fishing contest on Fridays in the evening each week, going well with the Northrend and Stranglethorn existing ones which take place on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Additionally, Blizzard's found a way to reuse that baby shark model that used to be Wintergrasp's faction reward back on WotLK beta--Robes of Pinioned Eyes looks to be one of the potential rewards. We also found a flyer----similar to the flyers handed out in capital cities for the STV event:

Anglers' Deep Sea Dive!Friday Evening - 7pm - 10pm.

Put on your scuba gear and take to the water! Look for Rockscale Shrimp or catch its rare predator, the Shimmersand Turtle! Make sure to cast your nets and don't be afraid to get a little wet! The first person to catch twenty Rockscale Shrimp or catch a Shimmersand Turtle can turn them in to Fishmaster Shen in the harbor.

Even if you are not the first person to catch the shrimp, you can still turn them in for tokens. There are special fish to also be caught that will reward special prizes - like your very own baby shark!

Farm Contest: Farmer's Market

The Tillers host a Farmer's Market every Wednesday according to the in-game calendar. If you go to Darnassus, some of the guards vaguely refer to it--some don't. Players will be able to sell their livestock, compete in best of show competitions, and more as well as buy rare seeds for their farms and other goods.

Friday the 13th

It looks like every Friday the 13th there will be a spell of bad luck in Azeroth. There will be a black cat event--likely related to pet battles, perhaps a swarm of black cats--and a bad luck debuff. I hope they add more!

Archaeologist Buffs

There's been a lot of changed hinted at for Archaeology, such as the involvement of the Lorewalker faction, increased digs per site, and perks tied to solving digsites, as Bashiok covered in his blog, A Night in Mists of Pandaria.

We datamined Blackout Kick from the latest beta patch, which sheds some more info on these profession changes: it makes its subject able to find archaeology projects in half the time. We also noted that there was some incomplete data labeled for the Lorewalkers to move throughout Azeroth. Unfortunately, archaeology is currently bugged on the beta so we can't test this out.